About Alistair Darling
Alistair Maclean Darling, Baron Darling of Roulanish, (28 November 1953 – 30 November 2023) was a British politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer under Prime Minister Gordon Brown from 2007 to 2010. A member of the Labour Party, he was a member of Parliament (MP) from 1987 to 2015, representing Edinburgh Central and Edinburgh South West. Darling was first appointed chief secretary to the Treasury by Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1997, and was promoted to Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in 1998. After spending four years at that department, he spent a further four years as Secretary of State for Transport, while also becoming Secretary of State for Scotland in 2003. Blair moved Darling for a final time in 2006, making him President of the Board of Trade and Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. After Brown succeeded Blair as prime minister, he promoted Darling to replace himself as Chancellor of the Exchequer in 2007, a position he remained in until 2010. He served as chancellor during the 2008 financial crisis and the Great Recession. From 2012 to 2014, Darling was the chairman of the Better Together Campaign, a cross-party group that successfully campaigned for Scotland to remain part of the United Kingdom in the 2014 independence referendum. He was a vocal advocate for the Remain campaign for the 2016 European Union membership referendum. In November 2014, Darling announced that he was standing down at the 2015 general election. He was nominated for a life peerage in the 2015 Dissolution Honours and sat in the House of Lords until his retirement in 2020. According to the Financial Times, Darling was "one of the most consequential post-war chancellors in modern British history".
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